Vacation

Wow! That was fast! The last few days we took a mini fast whirlwind vacation to Southern California to see some of my family and go to Disneyland. It started on Sunday morning at 5am when we left rainy Northern California (it was dropping buckets as we left) to drive to sunny (for that day) Southern California. We went from rain and 50* weather to sun and 70* weather. It was nice. The weather made it so we could go to the beach also.

This trip was full of firsts for Brandon. First thing was that we stopped in Northridge to visit with my great aunt Val, Brandon's great great aunt, who will be 102 this year. He also got to meet my aunt Valerie, his great aunt Valerie. It's kind of cool we both have a great aunt Val. Too bad we didn't get any pictures of them all together. After lunch we all left and my dad, Linda and us went to Long Beach to the beach by our junior lifeguard area. This was Brandon's first time at the beach and it was a hit and success. I definitely have a water baby. He kept trying to run back into the water. That boy had no fear of the water. He got drenched in his overalls, so we took those off and he ran around in a diaper and t-shirt. It really wasn't too cold out. And if it were, he really didn't care. His diaper ended up being filled with sand from the water. So we had to give him a little shower and then warmed him up in the car. We had been waiting for so long to take him to the beach and I am so glad we finally did. After the beach, we went back to my dads house and got situated. Brandon had a warm bath and we all got in comfy clothes and settled in for the night. Actually, we all fell asleep around 6:30pm or so. It goes to show just how much traveling takes it out of you.

The next morning we all woke up to get ready for Disneyland. Another first for Brandon. We weren't sure how he was going to react to it but we were hoping for excitement. Which we got. He was full of giggles and laughs just waiting for the tram. Could have been from getting enough sleep too, but I would like to think it was from the excitement of something new. And the Happiest Place On Earth. The weather ended up being perfect. It rained overnight and a little that morning, but it ended up being a cool and cloudy day. Brandon seemed to love the rides we went on. First up was Snow White and he was looking all over the place at all of the decorations and everything. One of the last rides we went on with him was Pirates of the Caribbean and he reacted the same way. Just taking it all in. Eric was wondering if he was going to end up having nightmares from it, but it didn't seem like it. Our adventurous kid we have there. We met up with my friend Karen and her daughters after Pirates. We walked over to California Adventure and went on a few rides there with them. Karen and I took a picture together and here's where you can see just how much my back has been affected by Multiple Myeloma. If you look close at the picture and take away the mouse ears, I am shorter than Karen in the picture. We used to be the same height. Now, there is a huge difference. I'm much shorter than her now.

 I'm much shorter than Karen now

After the last right, California Screaming, we parted ways. Karen and her girls went on Soaring Over the World and we left to go to Downtown Disney to do a little shopping and eat dinner. It was about 6:00pm at this point and the parks closed at 8pm and 9pm. We shopped for about an hour and then walked to the restaurant for dinner. Brandon took a nap through all of the shopping and woke up for the walk to dinner. Dinner wasn't a long wait at all. We got our table pretty fast. We all ordered and had Brandon's meal come early. He started to eat on his own and even though I cut a few small pieces of his burrito for him, he grabbed the big piece and started to eat it. He was so happy he was eating it all by himself.

After dinner we went to the Lego store and Eric got a Lego Star Wars character to go with the other one we got at the Disney Store. After that we walked to the tram to catch it to the parking structure to leave. I had decided, once we were at the car, I was going to see if my step mom was available and we would stop by to see her so she could finally meet Brandon. I got a text from her before I could send anything and set up the visit that way. We got there at about a quarter after 9pm and we visit and she got to play with Brandon for a while. We unfortunately had to cut it short since I had to be up early to get on the road this morning at 5am to drive home.

The drive was a lot longer going home. The reason was because Brandon wasn't comfortable in his carseat for the long trip home. So, we made more stops. Then, just south of Sacramento it started to rain. That helped add some time to the trip, but Brandon was asleep at this point. We got home about 12:30pm and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing.

This was a much deserved and needed vacation after just over a year of medical appointments every week and the transplant. We could probably use a much longer one, but that will come at another time when we have more time saved up for vacations at both of our jobs.